Our Social Values strategy sets out the commitment of the Board to achieving ambitious change and positive impact, improving the lives of our colleagues, clients, workers and the communities we serve. Social Value is a complex area and a core part of our business strategy to 2030 and beyond.
Our Approach
We’ve followed industry and Social Value best practice in developing our strategy wherever possible. There is a great deal of positive work already being done and we’re proud to learn from this and embed this into our processes (where appropriate) as part of our work.
We also push ourselves to innovate and create our own solutions to the Social Value challenges we face. We believe this gives us a realistic, relevant plan for our business supporting our clients and the projects we deliver. As part of this, we work closely with our sister company, The Shore Group to ensure we maximise the benefits across the entire group and share the investment costs as we develop a comprehensive programme.
Our strategy is split into three strategic pillars; Environmental Sustainability, Social Responsibility and Economic Development. We’ve aligned the goals under each pillar with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), developed by the UN in 2015. Aligning with the SDGs allows our strategy to evolve in-line with global best practice and industry-specific initiatives.
Reporting and Governance
Performance against project targets is reported quarterly (as a minimum) with the Leadership Team and key actions agreed to continue to drive positive change. We reset our Social Values strategy in 2022 as we recognised we could do better. As such, certain targets have limited historical data as metrics were not previously tracked.
As part of our Social Values reporting we also produce a monthly Group newsletter which you can subscribe to here for updates on key initiatives and opportunities to get involved.
Environmental Sustainability
Our environment goals focus on carbon, waste and protecting the environments where we work. 2022 was the baseline year for our carbon footprint and as a Group our target is to achieve net zero for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2030. Aligned to this, we aim to significantly reduce the was produced / £m revenue by the same date.
Finally, and often most visibly for our projects, we aim to increase the time we spend supporting local community environmental projects.
Social Responsibility
The core initiatives as part of this pillar focus on promoting EDI amongst our teams and boosting employment opportunities for disadvantaged communities. Our commitment to apprenticeships, Ethical Resourcing and WBC Cares UK initiatives sit at the heart of this, using each project as a gateway into new career for local workers.
Economic Development
Working closely with our Procurement team, our economic development goals seek to create sustainable and diverse supply chains on every project, boosting the benefits of our Social Values policy through our suppliers.
As well as aiming to boost the benefits local communities see directly from each build, our goals also seek to ensure responsible working practices on human rights, modern slavery and paying living wages to all workers.
Partnerships with Clients
We’re excited to drive change and innovate through our Social Values Strategy. We also know that we can and do achieve much more working in partnership with our clients. Joining ourSocial Value goals with our clients, pools resources and helps increase the overall benefit we can both demonstrate, ultimately improving the lives of workers and the communities we serve.
